A micromachined impact microactuator driven by electrostatic force

This paper presents a novel micromachined actuator which is developed to produce precise and unlimited displacement. The actuator is driven by impact force between a silicon micro-mass and a stopper. The suspended silicon micro-mass is encapsulated between two glass plates and driven by electrostatic force. When the mass hits the stopper which is fixed on glass plates, impact force is generated to drive the whole actuator in a nano size step (∼10 nm). The overall dimension of the device is 3 mm ×3 mm. The driving voltage is 100 V and average speed is 2.7 μm/s. The total thickness is 600 μm.